Growler48 wrote:Very nice road trips! I'll probably have to wait until I retire to get enough time off to make trips like that!

So far this year I've managed to flex my time enough that I haven't lost any time at work. I'm a contractor, so I get paid by the hour, but they let me do it however I want as long as I get done what I have to. I have to put in some long hours ahead of time to do trips like this, but it's so worth it.

I took a 3 day 800+ mile motocamping trip to central Oregon a couple weeks back. The Beast can be a wonderful touring machine! I'd love to do a full Akra exhaust, but they aren't compatible with KTM luggage so I didn't. The ability to haul gear when I need to, but restore the clean look of the bike when I don't adds so much utility and enjoyment for me.

So far I've taken 3 motocamping trips like this, and 1 non-camping long weekend tour. No problems. I love this damn bike.

Washed and naked looks like the 1290 2.0 that lost the rear passenger cowlings.

Apparently that's the only photo that wants to show up correctly on this site. Here's links to to the other 3.

mrs grommet is going along. The idea was that she'd drive the support vehicle. 3400 miles in 4 days. 1000 miles the first day, in which we'd trailer the bike to somewhere near the mountains in Wyoming. 3 days to follow, each of 800 ish miles. Planned stops were Cody, Lake Louise, somewhere near Hazelton/Meziadin Junction/Hyder, AK, and Haines.

My son (who's 19) was also going along, as it became a bit of a family vacation / visit to relatives. He was gong to help my wife with the driving, so she could work on her freelance editing jobs on the way.

He dropped out at the last minute. Not an adventurous soul, or one who even likes to travel at all. Bummer. It threw a wrench into the entire trip plan. More time in the car for me, more time on the trailer for my bike. I'm not thrilled but I can roll with it. Rigidly flexible.

We leave on time Saturday morning. 1000 miles to Cody. On the way we investigate camping, airbnbs, hotels, etc. Find an inexpensive airbnb in Greybull, about 35 miles east of Cody. It will do.

I didn't realise until we were almost there that we'd end up going through Sheridan. It was too late to get in touch with Tina, so we'll have to try again on the way back.

Approaching our exit off I-90 to US 14 in Ranchester, WY, I took note that 14 would take us over a mountain on a nice twisty road. Pulled the bike off the trailer and had a nice blast up the mountain. At the top it had gotten dark and the deer had come out to play. Dozens of them. After not hitting 4 of them as they wandered around in the road, I stopped and we put the bike back on the trailer.

I have now ridden the CT in all possible conditions from dirt roads to slippery black spots on wet pavement in 40 degree temps. No problems. The worse the road is the better it works.

One more thing. Almost all the land north and west of Cody Wyoming is spectacularly beautiful.

Day 2:

Greybull, Wyoming to Radium Hot Springs, BC.

I rode in the morning. Chief Joseph Highway from Cody north to 212, then west on 212 through Yellowstone to Gardiner Montana, then up to Livingston. As I mentioned, this part of Wyoming is very beautiful, and the CJ hwy is very nice to ride.

These pics do not do it justice. I could have stopped for better ones but I was into riding and wanted to put some miles down.

It was my first twisty road on the CT. I had it leaned over as far as I ever do on the street. Not a hint of slip. The handling is a bit different - the bike just wants to stay upright more - but nothing my body could not adjust to in a little while. Really no big deal. I would not hesitate to take a CT to Arkansas or any of the other places I frequently ride, and run at our normal 2X+ pace. On any trip where distance is an issue and tyre wear a concern to being able to make the trip without a change (AR, anyone?), I'll be using one. I've spent way too much time being gingerly with the throttle, the cornering, and use on any kind of dirt road due to worry over rear tyre life. Those days are over. With a CT you can hammer the throttle, rip corners as hard as you want, drive on any surface, and not ever feel a bit of concern - the tyre will cost less than half what you normally pay and last at least 2 times as long.

Now back to the trip - Montana is also very pretty. The big mountains, lakes, rivers, and beautiful views just don't stop.

This is Swan Lake, on Montana 83 southeast of Kalispell:

Right at the north end of Flathead Lake, there are these amazingly yellow fields of flowers:

Going on up into Canada, the mountains don't stop:

We got a hotel in Radium Hot Springs. Nice little place in a town full of people. 784 miles total for the day.

Leaving Radium Hot Springs, headed into Kootenay, Banff, and Jasper Nat'l Parks. They are all connected and it wasn't really clear when leaving one and entering the next, but there was only one fee ($9 and change, Canadian, considerably less than the $30 USD charged at Yellowstone).

The ride from Radium up to Canada Hwy 1 between Banff and Lake Louise is perhaps the most spectacular road I've ever been on. I only stopped once for a photo, right near the beginning, but should have stopped more.

Words and photos really fail to convey how cool this place is. Nicer than anything I've yet seen in the lower 48.

Turning onto Canada 1 was a change of pace. Larger road. It's a divided 4 lane for a while, until 93 splits off to go up to Jasper. Lots of people - Lake Louise is a popular destination.

Just after the split where 93 heads north from 1, I stopped to take a couple more pics:

Then a bit further up the road, near Bow Lake:

One very interesting thing happened along this road. There were numerous groups of slow-moving vehicles I passed. Usually a bunch of cars would get stuck behind an RV or semi truck. With all the ups and downs and curves, it's very difficult to get by a large vehicle if you're in a car. But as I was doing this several times, I noticed a van that would periodically catch up to me. For any other vehicle to keep up is rare. That it was a van, not a sports car or some other fast-moving car, was astounding. At one point there was a construction zone where all traffic was stopped for about 20 minutes. I happened that the van was right behind me as I pulled up to the line of cars waiting to go through. I got off my bike to stretch my legs and the van driver got out and came over to chat. He asked how I was, said it looked like I was having fun, and then told of how he and his wife have motorcycled all over the lower 48 states - they are avid motorcyclists. I congratulated him and added that I thought he kept a pretty good pace in the van. He replied that he's been making the same trip from Calgary to Jasper every day for 35 years - some kind of delivery service. He then said he'd NEVER seen a cop pull anyone over on that road, and that he regularly goes 160kph. (that's right around 100 mph) Never got pulled over, never got a ticket.

Having seen the proof of his driving skill and speed, I figured his story was legit. Turns out he was right. No cops at all on that road, and from then on I rode at whatever speed I felt like and stopped worrying about the cops.

I slowed for cars and really, really tried to be nice and civilized around them, but spent many miles in one of the most pristine, beautiful places on the planet, running mountain curves at 80-100 mph. There are other similarly enjoyable things to do in life, but on a motorcycle this was definitely a high point.

mrs grommet caught up to me in Jasper, about 30 minutes behind. We had lunch together and then continued west on Canada 16 toward Prince George. I rode for another 60 miles or so then stopped and put the bike on the trailer so my wife could take a break from driving. However, let it be noted that the entire way from Jasper through Prince George on rt 16 to the Cassiar Hwy (rt 37) is a worthy motorcycling road with plenty of curves and beautiful views.

Here are a couple of photos from the stretch of 16 west of Jasper:

The rest of the day was spent going west on 16 toward the Cassiar, then a ways up the Cassiar to Meziadin Junction. Some commentary on gasoline and happenstance to follow.

At this point, we decided to not stop for the night, but drive straight on through to Haines and get there ahead of schedule. I didn't really know if riding my bike on the Cassiar would be worth it, and we wanted to get into Haines before dark the next day. With nearly 1000 miles to go yet, this all seemed like a decent plan. So no looking for a place to stop - just keep going.

So we didn't really take care to investigate the availability of gas on the Cassiar hwy. I'd read that it could be a difficulty, but once there, it seemed that there were enough people around and enough small towns that surely there would be gas available frequently enough to get through.

Wrong.

We got to the junction of 16 and 37, the south end of the Cassiar. There's a gas station there. I was after dark, around 11:30 pm, and it was closed, and the pumps were turned off. We could get a cell signal and looked up the road for other stations. Road signs confirmed there was gas 140km up at Meziadin Junction, so we headed that way. Plenty to get there, but not much more than that.

While at that first closed station, we met the truck guys. 4 guys in 2 trucks. They are from Florida. Headed to Anchorage to work on a construction project. They work for a hotel conglomerate that owns 60ish hotels all over the US. Their company had recently bought a new hotel in Anchorage and they were part of the crew sent to renovate it. They all seemed nice enough, and offered to let us follow them, as they were in the same situation of needing gas. We thanked them but said we'd probably be ok and off they went. The truck guys would turn up several more times in the next 15 hours or so.

On the way again. Never got full dark but definitely night time. The road became very lonely. Not many people out there at that hour.

About 30km up the road, we come a construction zone with a flag man. He had the stop sign out, so we crept up and stopped. After a few seconds, he comes over to the car. Says it's normally a 15 minute wait, but it will be longer because two trucks just blasted past the stop sign and the pilot car, and the 2-car pilot system was now in disarray with them going north and another group led by the 2nd pilot car coming south. The longer turned out to be almost an hour.

Thanks, truck guys.

While sitting there waiting, I was looking north at the glow along the horizon. What I thought was northern lights turned out to be some cirrus clouds at very high altitude, backlit by the sun and glowing a bright blue color. Not northern lights but very pretty anyway. Signs and wonders.

Finally they got it all sorted out and we followed the pilot car over 8 miles of very dusty gravel. No real big deal, just time slipping by.

With a touch less than a quarter tank of gas left, we rolled into Meziadin Junction. Gas pumps were lit up, though the store was closed. Sidling up next to the pump, I see the LCD screen indicating the need to prepay inside. Impossible, of course, because the store was closed. It's now 3am. Store opens at 7. OK, the plan to drive straight through just vanished. We pulled over to the side of the parking lot and prepared to sleep another 4 hours in the car. It was dark and there was nobody around so we both peed right there in the parking lot. Well, in the weeds near the edge of the lot. Crass, yes. Also necessary, and there were no better options.

Nothing like sleeping in your car at a deserted gas station in the middle of British Columbia. It's why they call it adventure.

For me the 4 hours of sleep in the car turned into just over 3. I woke up at 6:15 and had 45 minutes to contemplate Lehi's dream. And other things. We were at the pump by 7 and ready to get it moving. The store was open on time and we got the gas and took care of other business inside this time, in the designated restroom areas.

Just after leaving Meziadin Junction, there was a sign on the side of the road saying 24 hour gas available 80km up the road at Bell 2 Lodge. Got to be kidding me. We could have just kept going. Oh well.

The road was pretty and plenty twisty, but I drove and let mrs grommet work on an editing project she had a deadline for. Will make a point to ride that section on the way back.

Bell 2 was open when we went by, but we were full up at that point so didn't stop. Couple of hours went by and the editing project was done. About time for a pit stop, the road was nice, so we decided to stop and I'd get the bike off and ride a ways. We pulled into the Tatogga Lake Lodge, and gassed up again. Car, bike, and the 4 gallons in my extra cans. Went inside to use the bathroom (decency, right?) and use wifi to send off the edit project.

Tatogga Lake Lodge:

Guess who was in the lodge dining room eating breakfast? The truck guys. What the heck!? We thought for sure they would have gotten gas at Bell 2 and kept going.

Wrong.

Bell 2 had in fact been closed during the night, so the truck guys had slept in their trucks there. Turns out we would have been no better off had we seen the sign back at Meziadin and kept going. Hhmm.

They also claimed that the flag man had the slow side of his sign showing, not the stop side, so from their point of view, they were not 'blowing past the stop' as we'd been told, but merely following directions. They were thus surprised when the flag guys gave them a dressing down in the construction zone. Nobody was killed or arrested, so I guess in the end it was no big deal.

While we were unloading the bike, truck guys came out and took off. In spite of mrs grommet being pissed at them for causing all the trouble (likely story, she said of their claim of the 'slow' sign), we wished them a good and safe journey.

The Tatogga Lodge guy came out as we were unloading. He offered a water hose for me to wash all the dust off my bike. That was nice. That looks like a fast bike, he said. What kind is it? KTM. What's that? KTM. It's an Austrian company. Oh, BMW. No, KTM. Different company. Scowls, and then, well, be safe, hope you have a nice ride. And we were on our way.

In the daytime the Cassiar is endlessly beautiful. Mostly twisty. Some rough sections. But nice enough that I could maintain a good 75-90 mph pace. I passed the truck guys a ways up, and gave them a friendly wave. On down the road, I needed a pit stop, and saw a nice lake on the side of the road, so I stopped there:

A few minutes after I got there, the truck guys rolled up. They jumped out and came over. Comments about how fast I had been going when I passed them, and how fun that looked. Yes, it's fun. That bike can really go fast. Yes, it can

The guy in the background of the last pic was broken down. Nice place to be broken down - next to a lake. 3 of the 5 lugs on his right rear wheel had broken off. Somehow he had heard them rattling around in the hub cover and stopped before the wheel let go completely. He had friends on the way with parts, and seemed to be having a good time fishing. Or maybe he just wanted to be fishing and the broken stud story was just a cover for his wife . . .

The truck guys clambered down to see the lake, and mrs grommet went by in the car, so I took off again. The rest of the ride to the end of the Cassiar was mostly uneventful. I saw a bear on the side of the road. I didn't stop to play with it or take pictures.

Just south of the north end of the Cassiar, the road crosses the border between British Columbia and Yukon Territory. I stopped there and took a couple of pics of the signs. No big deal, just showing where I was:

A couple miles further up and the Cassiar dead ends into the Alcan. We wanted to make some time so as not to get into Haines too late, so we loaded up the bike and started our very first drive on the Alaska Highway. That's got to be a life milestone.

While we were there, the truck guys pulled up again. We'd be parting ways as they were going farther north before heading to Anchorage, so we shook hands and wished them well.

The run up to Haines Junction through Whitehorse was uneventful. I rode again from the junction down to Haines. It had become cold, very windy, and misty, so I got wet a bit. The good thing about that was that I got this cool photo of a rainbow up against the mountains in the distance:

(for reference this photo was taken around 9:15pm.)

We got into Haines without further incident. No problems at the border. It was nice to have a comfortable bed waiting.

A little commentary about the beauty of this ride -

Imagine yourself on a decent twisty road in very nice country. 149 near Lake City in Colorado. 28 near Deal's Gap. 16 in Arkansas.

Now imagine riding that road the same distance as from Phoenix to New York City. That's what this ride has been like.

Wednesday we put my BIL's sailboat in the harbor. He has a slip there but had not put it in since last summer. They take it out over the winter so they don't have to go down there to check on it when it's dark and very cold.

While there we got a nice treat:

Wednesday is cruise ship day:

Thursday we walked around town a bit, went shopping, then went for a short hike a little ways down the penninsula:

They're not much for rules around here:

Nature is right here:

Fireweed:

Friday it was very nice out and so we went sailing:

My sister Natalie and mrs grommet:

motoring out:

My BIL Sam:

Getting out into Lynn Canal (no one knows why it's called a canal. It's actually a fjord.) The channel to the right is the way up to Skagway. The water is 1200 feet deep in that channel.

The day after sailing, we went south down the peninsula to Chilkat State Park. It was cloudy and cool, in the mid to high 50s.

Looking south down the Chilkat River. Or actually, where the river joins the Lynn Canal.

The mountains to the west. That's a glacier up on top.

There are mostly igneous rocks around here, so although there is not much sand on the beaches, what is there is black:

Me and Heather:

Sam and Natalie:

A closer look at that glacier:

That day we also stopped in at the local salmon cannery, The Haines Packing Company. It's a pretty small operation, with the entire disassembly and cleaning area in an area about 30' X 15'. The header was running about 1 cut per 3-4 seconds, much slower than the one at the cannery I worked in back in college, which was going at least once per second, or maybe even faster. They have it set up so you can do a tour of the entire line, with big windows along one side of the operation area. It was kind of cool to be able to see it working, and even better to know that I did not have to go inside and work there for 16 hours a day like the last time I visited a cannery

Next day we went way up the Chilkat River, to Klukwan. There is a native heritage center there, a museum where they have guided tours with information all about the native Tlinget people. They don't allow any photos, so we didn't take any. We also spent an hour or so down at the river. More eagles, and some fresh bear tracks. Don't follow the game trails into the woods.

The day after that, it was fishing time. Not with fishing rods, but crab pots and a halibut skate. Sam has a fishing skiff. It's a 22' open boat with a 90hp outboard. Max speed of about 25mph. It's a rough, dirty, noisy boat, with a very rusty smaller Honda engine up front to work the crane.

The crab pots are basically round cages covered with chicken wire. There are holes in the sides with spring-loaded gates. The crab can go into the gates, but then they spring shut so they can't go back out. There is a bait pouch filled with small fish and chunks of larger fish. Each pot has some line and a buoy attached to it. They are just dumped over the side of the boat, in an area that's less deep than the length of the buoy line. We put 3 of them in fairly shallow water, and one, for kings, in around 200' of water.

The skiff:

On the water:

Pots:

A halibut skate is a long line with an anchor and buoy at each end, and 60 baited hooks along the line. We dropped it on a slope that wen from about 140' to 90' depth. The hooks are 6-8' apart. The idea is that the halibut are bottom feeders, so putting the line along the bottom will put all the bait and hooks in their normal feeding area. The hooks are all pre-baited and have a leader about 2' long, then a clip thing which makes it easy to attach and remove from the skate line.

There are lots of people putting crab pots and halibut lines in these waters. There are all sorts of rules about who can do what, and when and where they can do it. Heather and I could go along in the boat, but were technically not allowed to help with anything, or even touch the pots or lines or any of the equipment used for fishing. Other tricky things about it - don't put your pots in the same area as any commercial guys. They are very territorial and will come by and cut your lines. When that happens, the buoy drifts off and the line and crab pot sink to the bottom and are lost. I suspect they also come along and harvest from other peoples' pots, but Sam said that would be a serious infraction and probably doesn't happen. But you leave it out there for a day or two and there's really nobody watching.

Interesting system.

So we put everything out, and boated around a bit more that afternoon. It was nice out, seas were quiet, and the wind was down. Lots of fun.

Next day we went out to retrieve everything. I was just watching:

This is the king pot. There are a bunch in there, but most are females, so they go back in the water.

Most of them are dungeness, but this is a blue king:

Also female, so it lives another day. We ended up with only one male to take home. It was cooked a couple hours later, and was very tasty.

The skate did not bring in any halibut. It did catch a bunch of these really ugly fish, the name of which I don't remember:

These are the hooks that go on the skate:

None of us got seasick and Heather and I both felt like we learned some new life skills, though fishing is a tough and stinky way to make a living.

As luck would have it, we needed to get the oil on the car changed mid-trip. While in Haines, we called the Toyota dealerships along the way and made and appointment for Friday at 11:00 with the one in Prince George. Google maps put it at 25 hours from Haines. We planned to leave at 4am Thursday morning, leaving us at least 6 hours extra for the trip to PG. We pulled out at 4:12, drove almost an hour up the road to the border crossing, and found that it didn't open till 8am. Oops. Natalie and Sam forgot to mention that. So we napped for a couple of hours, and got through without incident.

The weather was nice all the way through Whitehorse and over to the Cassiar. Also nice going south on the Cassiar, so I got the bike down and rode from about 50 miles north of Dease Lake. I started out at a normal pace but the way the highway is, soon found myself at the same 80-100 mph pace that was comfortable going north on the way up. Of course there were places I slowed down. There are many gravel sections along there, and none of them have much warning at all.

My plan was to ride down to Meziadin Junction. As luck would have it, the temperature dropped into the 40s and it started to rain about 20 miles north of Bell 2 Lodge, so I pulled out there and waited for Heather to catch up. Good decision - it rained from there, all through the night and most of the way into Prince George the next morning. I did get a few pics from along the Cassiar:

Dease River bridge:

Rainbows:

Sunset:

Somewhere along in there, as I was checking the straps on the trailer, I noticed the rear straps were suddenly much looser than they should be. I looked closer and found that the main rail of the trailer was cracked from top to bottom on one side, so only one side of the rail was keeping it up. And it was slowly bending, allowing the horizontal part of the rail to sag downward. It would not be good for that rail to let go at speed with my bike on it. So while we were getting the oil changed on the car, I called around and found a welding shop that could get us in that afternoon for a repair. Nechako Steel. They did a great job, putting a new, much stronger, rail inside the original one. About an hour and $150 Canadian ($112 US) later, we were on our way again. I thought it was a bargain, as just the material would have cost me nearly that here in Wichita.

The back lot at Nechako Steel:

Next issue: While in the lot at the steel place, the guy who was helping us noticed my bike was leaking gas. Front vent tube fitting, lower left front of the tank. It had leaked once before, and I put an o-ring under the threaded fitting. That o-ring must have failed, or the fitting loosened up, or something. I wasn't sure what to do, so we left and I thought about it for a while. Headed south on 97, hoping to be able to ride BC hwy 3 the next day.

Options to fix the gas leak:

Option 1: do nothing, hope the leaking gas does not lead to a pyrotechnic display.

Option 2: Glue the snot out of the area around the fitting with black RTV or something.

Option 3. Remove the fitting, and replace it with a screw, large flat washer, and some new o-rings.

Option 4: put a new o-ring under the head of the existing fitting.

Analysis: Option 1 was a bad idea. Don't really want the Katoom to go Kaboom. Option 2 would probably fail due to hydraulic pressure behind the glue. Option 3 would be difficult and probably wouldn't work because of the joint between the screw and the washer. Option 4 seemed best. I looked ahead on the map and found what seemed like a good auto parts store in Williams Lake. Turns out it's actually the best-stocked and most complete auto parts store I've even been in. They have everything. I got JBWeld, Black RTV, and some o-rings (I guessed on the sizes). I also drained all the gas out of the tank, so it would stop leaking as we went down the road.

We had planned to make it to Oliver that night. The trip down the Sea-to-Sky highway to Vancouver was not possible in the time/distance we had to work with. I found an airbnb there for a reasonable price - an RV in the owner's driveway. It was a nice place to stay for about $60.

On the way there were a bunch of forest fires in the area between Peachland and Penticton. Traffic was a bit slow but moving right along, and there were fires sometimes just a few feet off the road. It was hard to tell if anyone was actively fighting the fire, but in some places it was being left alone to burn out.

Getting close to Oliver, we saw signs for cherry orchards, so we decided to sleep in in the morning, then go pick cherries before heading east on BC 3. That was a fine idea. We went to Hillside Orchards, on 97 between Oliver and Osoyoos.

We got a load of cherries, which we snacked on all the way home. There are still two bins of them in the fridge, and they are wonderful. Worth it for a trip up there just for those.

After the cherries, we stopped at a city park in Osoyoos, and I worked on the gas leak. Turned out that option 4 worked. The new o-rings I got were thinner than the previous ones I'd put in there, so I was able to tighten the fitting one full turn more than before. It did the trick. No leaks and still doing fine.

Suited up and off we went, east on BC 3. Beautiful ride up a winding set of fast switchbacks, then many miles of the good stuff.

Heather and the 1-bike trailer going by:

More good stuff:

We went east to Creston, then dropped down through the Porthill border station, then down toward Libby, MT. Along the Kootenai River on US 2, west of Libby:

Long way to go from there. Drove through the night another 580 miles to Alpine, Wyoming. Along the way we stopped in Missoula and saw this redneck special:

Just after I took the picture, a couple of guys drove up and commented that they had seen me take the picture, and it was their friend's truck. Said it had some serious crazy stuff going on with the driveline. Looked like an inverted transfer case was used to drop a shaft to the middle wheels. Yep, that's nuts. They said they doubted it could go much more than 45 mph.

Crazy.

Next day I rode up the Snake River Valley from Alpine, WY, to US 191 (one of my favorite roads) and down to Daniel Junction. A very fun, fast ride. 80-90mph the whole way. I did see a cop in there but he was not broadcasting so no worries.

While passing a car in that stretch, I noticed a bit of power loss at full throttle in 5th gear. Didn't think much of it, but should have taken note.

Loaded up in Daniel, and we drove down to I-80. East on I-80 to WY 789, where I got the bike off again. Plan was to ride south to Baggs, east to Riverside and down to Walden, then south on 125 to Granby and east over the mountains through Estes Park to Loveland, where I'd meet up with Heather and drive the rest of the way home. Was not to be. All was ok until about halfway between Baggs and Riverside, the bike lost all power above half throttle. This got worse and worse until it would barely run with almost no throttle, then sputtered out completely. I waited a few minutes, tried to restart, and it came back to life. Rode onward, over a mountain pass, gradually the problem came back. At this point it would run with less than 1/4 throttle, then after 10 minutes or so die. Then start right up, run great for a bit, then falters again to stoppage. I think and think, and conclude it's a clogged vent line creating a vacuum lock in the tank, so I disconnect the vent at the lower left rear of the tank. That helped a bit, but only by delaying the decay to stoppage a bit longer. OK, I reason, maybe the vent line inside the tank (not sure how this is done in there) has come loose or stopped up inside, so I open the gas cap and just let it sit against the latch. Some improvement. Now I can ride slowly, barely using any throttle, but as soon as more than 1/4 is applied, bogging results and power is gone. I change course in Walden, let Heather know, limped it over the mountain and most of the way down to Fort Collins, where she met me. No real big problem, but the fun factor was way down for the last few miles of riding.

I did get a few fun on this last riding bit.

All these tractors were on the road east of Riverside. About 20 of them. Must have been going to some kind of meet-up

PLEASE tell me where you read about that fuel filter issue! It sounds exactly like the problem I was having on a trip through Oregon back in July. It first happened to me while ascending a mountain pass in Eastern Oregon. I wrote up the incident here, and another guy was having the exact same issue that week.http://ktmsmt.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=11887

I searched all over, but couldn't find any other people describing that issue.

PLEASE tell me where you read about that fuel filter issue! It sounds exactly like the problem I was having on a trip through Oregon back in July. It first happened to me while ascending a mountain pass in Eastern Oregon. I wrote up the incident here, and another guy was having the exact same issue that week.http://ktmsmt.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=11887

I searched all over, but couldn't find any other people describing that issue.

Take note - the post right after mine (page 3) indicated the pre-filter might be the problem.

What I actually did was slice it open, take the really thick stuff out of the inside, left the lightweight screen material in it, then closed it back up with a few small zip ties and put it back in. With the secondary (main) filter in place, nothing will get into the injectors, and I don't think anything that can get past that modified pre-filter will damage the pump. No issues since then and I've romped the throttle hard many times.

scamb66 wrote:Great write up Grommet, roads and scenery I can only dream about.

I love the gold rims but that rear tyre has gotta make it handle funny. Good for the miles.

Handling in parking lots is the biggest issue. Once at speed it's barely noticeable.

Since the Alaska trip I've put another 3000 miles on it, including a weekend in the twisty roads of NW Arkansas. Normally an AR weekend means more than 50% of any set of moto tyres is turned into vaporized rubber. The CT not only lasted the whole weekend, I could barely tell the difference from before the weekend. And I was not going slow. My normal AR pace is 2X+. Twice the posted safety speed on the yellow signs plus a bit. (for example, 9 from Melborne to Allison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5CoMrSYbE8) I was able to keep that pace with the CT with zero issues. I rode with a friend on a Gen 1 FZ1 who is a top B-group track rider; I left him behind a number of times.

You'll never believe it until you try it. Yes, I agree it looks wacky. No argument there. I suspect there is a lean angle at which it will give up. I don't lean that much. Going on 5000 miles on a $57 tyre with many miles yet to go and the ability to romp the piss out of the SD throttle without having to worry even the slightest little bit about wasting my tyre, and handling that lets me ride my normal pace on twisty roads, is a winner all the way around.

scamb66 wrote:Great write up Grommet, roads and scenery I can only dream about.

I love the gold rims but that rear tyre has gotta make it handle funny. Good for the miles.

Handling in parking lots is the biggest issue. Once at speed it's barely noticeable.

Since the Alaska trip I've put another 3000 miles on it, including a weekend in the twisty roads of NW Arkansas. Normally an AR weekend means more than 50% of any set of moto tyres is turned into vaporized rubber. The CT not only lasted the whole weekend, I could barely tell the difference from before the weekend. And I was not going slow. My normal AR pace is 2X+. Twice the posted safety speed on the yellow signs plus a bit. (for example, 9 from Melborne to Allison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5CoMrSYbE8) I was able to keep that pace with the CT with zero issues. I rode with a friend on a Gen 1 FZ1 who is a top B-group track rider; I left him behind a number of times.

You'll never believe it until you try it. Yes, I agree it looks wacky. No argument there. I suspect there is a lean angle at which it will give up. I don't lean that much. Going on 5000 miles on a $57 tyre with many miles yet to go and the ability to romp the piss out of the SD throttle without having to worry even the slightest little bit about wasting my tyre, and handling that lets me ride my normal pace on twisty roads, is a winner all the way around.

Thanks for the link man! That is so strange that you, me, and another forum member all experienced the same issue during the same week! It makes me think that the filter issue must also be exacerbated by hot weather and mountain passes. Pretty wild. It's gonna start raining every day here in Portland, Oregon soon. Once it does I'll take the tank off and see if I can get the fuel pump and filter sorted out. Thanks for the reply!